The Best Translation of The Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy was written in Italian. 3 recommended editions, ranked — with Gröblé’s verdict on which to read first.
John Ciardi
Signet Classics · 1954
Ciardi was a poet first and it shows. His 1954 version moves at a real reader's pace, plain where Dante is plain, raised when the verse asks for it. The footnotes stay out of the way.
Every recommended edition, compared
The Hollanders give you facing-page Italian and the kind of notes that actually answer your questions. Robert Hollander spent a lifetime on Dante and it shows on every page. Prose, not verse, which is the trade.
Mandelbaum writes English verse that holds up as English verse. Less literal than the Hollanders but the rhythm carries. The version to read for the poem before getting into the scholarship.
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Reading The Divine Comedy in translation
The Divine Comedy was written in Italian, so unless you read Italian, the translator decides the book you actually experience — its register, its pace, how it sounds read aloud. Two editions of the same work can feel like different books.
The ranking above is Gröblé’s: one reader’s verdict on which English gets you closest, not a publisher’s blurb. Start with the top pick; reach for the others when you want a different angle on the original.